


I-dle Pirates

by LeakingPan



Category: (여자)아이들 | (G)I-DLE, K-pop, Unpretty Rapstar (TV)
Genre: Gen, K-pop References, Space Pirates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-03
Updated: 2021-02-02
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:08:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 17,708
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27867409
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LeakingPan/pseuds/LeakingPan
Summary: Soyeon, having failed to join many crews, has decided to make her own. First she'll need a ship.I will be posting new chapters every Tuesday.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 22





	1. The Crew

On the edge of the S.K. Nebula, sits the small port planet, _Cube_. 

On the edge of the small port planet Cube, stands a girl named Soyeon. 

She is shorter than most women her age, with brown hair that got lighter just past her shoulders. A scowl pasted on her face as she throws rocks at the windows of her former academy. 

“Who’s stupid enough to call their school _Produce 101_ anyway?!” She yells at the building as two large men step out of the front door not far from her. 

“We told you not to come back here!” One of the men yells just as Soyeon turns to run. 

Her feet carry her fast, but not far. She turns down a dank alleyway as she struggles for breath. 

“God… damn it…” She places one hand against the wall to hold herself steady as she pants, “First the _20_ different crews don’t want me… Now 101 kicks me out…” 

She takes a moment to look inward. _Should I even be doing this? No one wants me…_ Another ship catches fire in the sky above her, it was a common sight on Cube, then her eyes dart around the alley finally noticing where she is. She nods to herself with newfound determination. 

“Guess I’ll have to do it myself.” 

Cube is a port for starships of all kinds to rest for a moment, refuel, and be on their way. Most visitors do not stay long. Those who do stay, never do so on purpose. Many of its residents are descendants of people who crashed on this plant and didn’t have the means to leave after losing their ships (as you can imagine when a ship crashes you often lose the valuables inside as well as passengers). 

The majority of Cube’s natural environment had been destroyed by a series of business deals made by corrupt leaders to allow other, nearby, planets dump their trash on Cube’s surface. The resulting landscape was a combination of carnivorous forest life, strong enough to survive the new biome, and mountains of old broken flight equipment and trash. 

“First I’ll need a ship,” Soyeon says, sitting at a bar half-filled with local gang members. “But I guess a ship needs a crew… I could fly solo, but that would be pretty dangerous… Okay. First I need a crew.” She tries to clear her head; She could always see her goals out in front of her, but never the route to get there. 

_Only way to get a ship around here is to steal one._

She nods to herself as the bartender comes to stand in front of her. 

“You got money today?” She looks up at him and smirks. 

“How long we been friends Big Sancho?” Soyeon says. He shakes his head. 

“I like you kid, but we ain’t friends. If you don’t pay me…” he shrugs, “I might just forget I like you.” 

“You’re all talk Sancho.” She says, only half sure of herself, but unwilling to let any sign of doubt show. “Look I got a plan; it’s going to change things for me. You’ll be glad we were friends afterward.” 

“Big plans huh? Yeah I heard they kicked you out of 101.” 

Soyeon shrugs and jumps down off the bar stool. 

“I’ll be back, keep my stool warm.” 

Soojin adjusts the white fox mask that acts as a filter for the air around her. She enjoys dressing up for the _Unpretty Battles_ but she couldn’t risk being spotted there, her reputation could be tarnished and her business depends on her reputation. 

She crossed past the Heaps to Mnet Town, it was one of many Mnet towns all over the SK Nebula. It was a free-for-all kind of place, not that Cube was safe anywhere, but this was one notch closer to lawless chaos. She makes her way past the street vendors, the beggars, and the bookies. Soojin wasn’t there for herself, and part of her wanted to put money on her friend, but Unpretty Battles are unpredictable and Soojin knows that risking her money, would mean risking her business. 

A crowd gathers in the arena that was built using the parts of shattered mess halls from ships long fallen out of the sky. Soojin eyed the crowd. She recognized a few regulars, both of the arena itself and of her business, then slid past the entrance and found a spot along the left side where they had set up a sort of bleacher that climbed the wall angling the audience towards the pit. She sits down, adjusting her mask just enough so she wouldn’t be seen. 

The stage at the center of it all was a mix of debris and fabricated shielding arranged in a sort of circle pit 15 feet down. It was a simple fight, 2 enter, everyone leaves. It wasn’t to the death or anything, mostly for sport. Of course, it was dangerous and there was always the possibility that you wouldn’t come out alive. Cameras on wires hung over the pit and could zip along their wire to provide angles from above, secondary are spider-cams that crawl over the ground and sit inside the pit for a closer shot, or could find a contestant if they were hiding. 

This is how Soyeon makes her money. Even if she won every time, which she didn’t, there wasn’t a big enough crowd to win real money. Not enough for a ship anyway. The doors of the arena close, and the crowd begins to cheer as Soyeon and her opponent stepped towards the pit, standing just at the edge of the drop down. Once they were in, they would lose sight of each other, and the match would begin. 

Soyeon scans the crowd and quickly spots Soojin’s fox mask. Soojin gives a small nod. The corner of Soyeon’s lip turns up, then she looks over the layout of the pit, mapping it in her mind before meeting the gaze of her opponent. Soyeon is wearing a backpack that looks like she made it herself. Metal bits and shreds of fabric hang off it. 

Any and all equipment was allowed if they could carry it on their body, and it did not do lethal damage. Everything else was fair game. Soyeon had to be ready for anything once she entered the pit. She tries to search her opponent for weapons, but she was far and has most likely hidden her things like Soyeon did herself. There’s a loud screech from the old speakers set up around the arena. 

“Welcome welcome! Today we have returning Soyeon!” The crowd cheers, she seemed to be a favorite, not for her record, but for her creativity and boldness. “And first timer… Kool Kid. I guess.” 

_A first timer? Poor girl._

Soojin was a bit disappointed. First timers never last, even well-equipped and trained, they would lose to their nerve. The wire camera’s zipped into place, 2 over Soyeon, 1 over Kool Kid, and 1 with a wide shot of the arena. 

“You know the rules, nothing lethal. No outside help. Contestants may forfeit at any point. If a contestant is unresponsive at any time, they forfeit.” 

Both girls nodded. A loud buzzer went off and Soyeon takes a step forward into the pit, staring at her opponent till she disappears behind the debris. The first challenge is the fall, it was just far enough that you would injure yourself if you just jumped, and you don’t want to hurt yourself as soon as the match begins. Since equipment that made it easy, like impact boots or a powered grappling hook, is expensive, not to mention hard to find on Cube, Soyeon went for a more simplistic approach. Explosives. 

No rule against explosives since it wasn’t doing lethal damage to anyone. Soyeon was 10 feet from the ground when her backpack exploded, revealing two cylinders of her makeshift 1-time use jetpack. Twin flames shoot out the bottom and slow her just enough to hit the ground without issue. She ran and slid between a metal shield standing up in the dirt and debris then quickly removes the backpack and tossed it to the side. She took a mental note of where it was, wasting supplies was just as stupid as not having them. A spider camera crawling up the shield facing her, its lens eye focusing on her. 

She kneels and pulls another self-made tool, her auto burst. 

The second challenge was finding the opponent before they found you. With the yells from the crowd and sound of zipping wire cameras, making sound wasn’t a problem. Soyeon stood and started to dig at the ground around the shield, she knew that the people who set up the arena did it fast as there were more fights to come, and would therefore would not dig very deep to place this shield. The shield was taller than she was but light enough to carry. It wouldn’t protect you from everything, but it was good enough for what she needed. 

She lifts the shield out of the small hole and runs into the maze set out for them. 

Yuqi sits on the ground outside of a medical bay that was once a crashed ship and reclaimed by the locals as a hospital. She has minor cuts and bruises, but nothing time wouldn’t heal. Her shipmate Shuhua did not fare so well. Yuqi would be by her side, but she could not handle the smell of open wounds and burnt flesh. Fear was rare to her, normally she was one to run headfirst into a fight, no looking back, but this time that recklessness had gotten someone else hurt. She would have to make it right. The first step was making sure Shuhua would live, the second was figuring out how they would survive in this foreign star system. 

She has no money and very few supplies as she roams the streets. There didn’t seem to be a police force of any kind. In fact, the more she walks the more she realizes this was as close to an outlaw post as she had ever seen. She notes many gang members as she enters different areas of the city. They note her as well, but none seemed to cause trouble. _Could this whole planet be run by gangs? Wouldn’t that cause endless war over territory?_

Yuqi came to a large wall, covered in spray paint, likely by the gangs that she noticed before. The wall itself was one of the few things that didn’t seem to be made of stitched together ship parts. There was a guard house next to a gate to her left, to her right was more wall, but farther down was a mountain of trash. She could climb it to see what was on the other side of the wall. 

She decides it can wait; she hasn’t given up on finding an authority figure in this city. Even if it was some gang leader. 

Soyeon holds the shield over her head as she runs through the maze searching for any sign of her opponent. Turning a corner, she spots Kool Kid burying a trap she can’t identify. The motion in the corner of her eye gave Soyeon away. Soyeon slammed the shield into the dirt in front of her facing her opponent. Kool Kid notices two pods seemingly taped to the metal shield. They seem to be tiny plants. 

The pods then activate, their leaves unfolding to reveal two blinding lights directly into the eyes of Kool Kid. She screams for the whole arena to hear, like she thought she was dying. Soyeon remembers well the maze she studied from above and easily found a side route that gave her a straight shot at Kool Kid. Soyeon fired, the force shots hitting her over and over. Kool Kid’s body thrust back with each hit till she falls back into a panel set on top of an old oil tank. 

Kool Kid couldn’t see at all, and the cheering got so loud she couldn’t hear either, but she knew this was her only chance to get Soyeon back. She lifts a trigger from her belt; it must have been connected to the traps she set out. Soyeon could spot 3 of them, but they were nowhere near her, but she couldn’t risk getting caught by one. 

_There’s one place she wouldn’t dare put a trap._

Soyeon ran straight towards Kool Kid as she pulled the trigger. There was two, four, six explosions destroying parts of the maze all over the arena. Soyeon’s body crashed into Kool Kid and she let out a growl as she held her auto burst against Kool Kid’s head. 

“Give up.” 

Kool Kid was panting, her vision just starting to come back. 

“Damn…” She dropped the trigger, and the buzzer went off. 

Soojin wraps Soyeon’s leg after she removed a bit of shrapnel from Kool Kid’s trap. 

“Poor girl had no idea what she was doing.” Soyeon said taking a drink of her after-fight soju. 

“Do you think she’ll try again?” Soojin asks. Soyeon Shrugs. 

“Those traps can be effective, but you need more than a few explosives if you want to fight the best.” 

“Oh? you’re the best now?” Soojin stood up then sat down next to Soyeon, handing her a small plastic bag. “I got you these.” 

Soyeon opens it to reveal a bag of jellies, then Soojin snatches the Soju bottle from her and smirks. 

“I love Jellies.” Soyeon paused, it was already dark out. Mnet was not a place you wanted to be at night. “Let’s go, I’ll walk you home.” 

The next day wind and dust fill the tiny compartment Miyeon hid in as the landing legs folds out exposing her to the unknown planet. The ship landed in large walled-off yard filled with ships in all states of disrepair. Miyeon slowly climbs down the landing leg, keeping an eye out for anyone coming out of the ship, which none seemed to yet. 

She makes her way, weaving past ship after ship, to the wall that surrounded the yard. 

_If I follow this wall, I’ll have to run into an exit. This place looks like someone dumped 20 planets worth of trash here._

It wasn’t long before she found the gate into the city. She hides when she sees 4 guards standing nearby, but they didn’t bother to be looking out for people. __

_The guards change every 6 hours._

Soyeon notes as she lay on her stomach watching the edge of the shipyard through her spyglass. They do minor repairs here, but since the engineers of Cube aren’t the best in the system, they charged less, and charging less meant less security. 

As she was mapping the route the guards took during their watch, she huffs and set down her pencil as she realizes that the guards are sporadic and often lazy. It would be hard to know where any of them were at a given time as they seem to be just a group of armed men who hung out at a shipyard. Then she noticed a woman she had never seen before hiding against the wall of the yard. 

_Who is that?_ _Is she a thief?_

The girl waits, it wasn’t long before the guards were distracted by something, it didn’t take much. Miyeon moved around the gate into the city and disappeared from Soyeon’s view. 

Soyeon feels a cold blade against her neck, slowly pressing against her skin. 

“You a guard?” says a deep female voice from behind her. 

“…No…” Soyeon replies slowly, setting her spyglass down. 

“What are you doing out here?” says the voice. 

“Can I stand up?” 

The voice doesn’t say anything for a second, then pulls the knife away from Soyeon’s neck. 

“Slowly.” 

Soyeon stood up and turned to face the voice. It was a woman, not from here, she could tell right away, no one on Cube dressed like that, but she was also hurt. The woman’s clothes torn and burned in spots. 

“Who are you?” Soyeon asks. 

“I’m the one with the knife.” Yuqi says still holding it towards Soyeon. “You were planning to steal a ship, weren’t you?” 

“What do you mean?” Soyeon asks, surprised at the woman’s sudden, but correct, accusation. 

“My name is Song Yuqi.” She said, lowering her knife. “I need to get off this planet and I have nothing to give you in exchange.” 

Soyeon looked over the woman. She almost laughed as she saw this young girl holding a knife. 

“ _Am_ planning, yes.” 

_How could anyone find this person threatening?_

“First mate Yuqi,” Soyeon held her hand out. “I’ll be your captain.” 

Shuhua could only see blurred lights as she opens her eyes for the first time in days. 

“Yeobbun?” She says as a shadow blocks the light from entering her eyes. 

“You’re alive. I’m glad.” Says a voice, the owner of which Shuhua could not make out. 

“What…?” She only had flashes of explosions, her crewmates screaming, fire, and Yuqi grabbing her arm, then nothing. 

“Your ship crashed.” Says the voice, “You’re lucky you survived. Get some rest, I’ll go try to find your friend.” 

“My friend?” 

“So how are we going to do it?” Yuqi asks, sitting at a table in Big Sanchos bar. 

“First we have to find one where the repairs are done. Since it’s a shipyard, most of the ships are broken or missing parts, but if we can find one they fixed already…” Soyeon shrugs and waves Sancho over. He shook his head and came from behind the bar over to the table. 

“Cash, then I’ll serve you.” 

Three men in black barge into the bar at that moment, it wasn’t a loud place normally, but now it was silent. Hyunsuk walks up to Sancho and holds up a picture of a woman. 

“You seen this girl?” he asks, his eyes darting around the room like he was looking for a mouse. Sancho stared at the man. 

“A bit of advice friend, information ain’t free around here.” 

“She’s worth a lot to me, if you tell me where she is, I’ll make sure you get paid.” Hyunsuk says. 

Sancho shook his head. 

“Doesn’t matter. I ain’t seen her.” Sancho says with a shrug. 

The man twitches in anger, then shifts his gaze to Soyeon and Yuqi. 

“What about you two?” he holds out the picture towards them. 

Out of the corner of her eye, Soyeon noticed a woman peek up from behind the bar, the same girl who was sneaking around at the shipyard, then hide back down. Soyeon holds back a laugh, then looks up at the man who was growing more and more impatient. 

“Sorry mister, haven’t seen anyone like that?” Soyeon said, she reached out to take a sip of her drink before realizing she didn’t have a drink. 

Hyunsuk looks at her unsatisfied, but unable to do anything about it he turns and leaves the bar followed by his two men. 

After a few seconds Soyeon looks at Sancho. 

“What the hell is YG doing here?” 

“He must have lost someone important.” 

She lowers her voice to a whisper. 

“I can see your friend behind the counter.” Soyeon waved just as the woman poked her head out. Yuqi noticed her for the first time. 

“That’s the woman they were looking for.” Yuqi says and stands up. Soyeon grabs her hand to stop her. 

“She needs to get off this planet.” Sancho says. 

Soyeon places her creds on the table in front of him, much more than a drink cost. 

“What’s this?” He asks looking down at the creds. 

“All the creds I have in the world.” 

“For what?” 

“You said yourself, information ain’t free around here. You know a pilot, don’t you?” 

Sancho laughs, then picks up the creds. 

“Alright, but you’re going to have to take the girl with you.” Sancho says, Soyeon nodded in agreement. “Let’s go then.” 

“Cho Miyeon,” says the woman as the four of them climb over one of the smaller mountains that make up the Heaps. 

“Why was that guy after you?” Yuqi asks. 

“YG.” Soyeon says, “Why was YG after you?” 

Miyeon hesitates. 

“You know that guy?” Yuqi asked. 

Soyeon nods, “Know his reputation. You really aren’t from around here huh?” 

She looks back to Miyeon. 

“If you’re going to be part of my crew, I’m going to need to trust you.” Soyeon says realizing how hard it is to talk to this woman while trying to keep pace with Sancho in this trash. 

“Well… that’s fair.” Miyeon says, “As you know, he has a lot of crews under him, powerful crews. I was part of his latest creation. He called us PinkPunk. We were about to do our first big job, then I did something he wasn’t happy with. He got pissed and… well… I punched him in the face. Then ran.” 

Soyeon burst out laughing. “Hell yes.” 

“I couldn’t find your friend… but I’m sure she’ll come back to check on you soon.” The voice is shaky, it doesn’t believe it’s own words. 

Shuhua slowly opens her eyes; Things are finally starting to come into focus. The woman she sees before her was wearing a white fox mask. 

“How do you feel?” Asks Soojin, “You took some damage back there. And you kept saying ‘Yeobbun!’ in your sleep.” 

Soojin smiles seeing her patient finally waking up. Shuhua takes a deep breath. 

“I uh… You took care of me?” her voice is hoarse, her head still spinning as the room comes into view. 

Soojin nods, “best I could.” 

Shuhua tries to hide the heat growing in her cheeks but could not tell if it was working. 

“You wouldn’t happen to know where your friend went?” Soojin asks, “I can tell you guys aren’t from around here.” 

Shuhua shakes her head. 

“I don’t even...” her voice gives out and Soojin offers her a cup of water. 

“Don’t push yourself. It’s early still.” Shuhua takes a drink, the coolness of the water makes her feel much better. 

“…I don’t even know what planet this is.” 

“I see. Guess we’ll have to wait till she comes back.” Soojin brushes a strand of hair out of Shuhua’s eye. 

The four of them enter what seem to be a series of discarded shipping containers that were arranged into a maze. Without Sancho they would have been completely lost. They come to what seems like a dead end, then Sancho bangs on the steel door of a shipping container. After a few seconds, he bangs again, and the door swings open to reveal a gun being held by a tall woman. 

“Who are you?” she asks, her finger floating near the trigger. 

“Sancho.” Sancho says, “And some friends.” 

The woman scans the girls, looking back and forth from Sancho to them. 

“Weapons.” Says the woman. 

Sancho nodded, and reached behind his back into his pants and pulled out a pistol. Holding it with two fingers he kneels and sets it on the floor. 

“The girls aren’t armed.” Sancho says. 

The woman nods and slowly lowers her gun. 

“Stupid to be running around here unarmed,” she picked up Sancho’s gun. “Go ahead.” 

Soyeon finds it strange that the woman trusts them without searching for weapons. Sancho nods and walks past the woman. The shipping container had a cut entrance way which led to a dimly lit staircase tunnel. It would feel like a mine if the walls and ceiling weren’t made of reinforced trash (somehow it did not smell). The path split 3 ways at the bottom of the stairs, Sancho led the way down the left path till they came to a door. Opening the door found a warm room full of carpets and a kind of foreign décor Soyeon was not used to seeing. 

“Sancho, what brings you way out to the Heaps?” 

Minnie sits behind a desk covered in handwritten notes in a language that Soyeon did not recognize. She wore colorful clothes that looked unlike anything you would find at the shops on Cube, she must have made them herself. She stands up when she notices the three women behind him. 

“And you brought… friends?” 

“We need a pilot.” Soyeon says, subtlety us not her strong suit. 

“A pilot?” Minnie walks around the desk towards them, then looks at Sancho. “Why did you bring them to me?” 

“You been complaining about this rock since you got here.” He says casually. Sancho is acting strange, Soyeon noticed that he wasn’t his normal loud and straight forward self. Minnie moves closer to him and lowered her voice to almost a whisper. 

“Since when do you care how I feel?” She circles around him, “with me gone there will be a power vacuum, someone like you might profit from that.” 

“I don’t profit from Chaos.” Sancho says. 

Soyeon thought for a moment, before Yuqi jumps in. 

“I’m sorry. Hello miss, My name is Song Yuqi. I am from the Planet of Beijing. My ship crashed here.” This was the first time Soyeon realized Yuqi had an accent. It was subtle, but if you knew where she was from, you could hear it. 

“The Beijing galaxy?” Minnie moved away from Sancho and closer to Yuqi. “That’s not far from my home world. Nicha Yontararak, friends call me Minnie. I do feel bad for you, but sadly it is not an original story. Many ships crash here, by design.” 

“By design?” Yuqi asks. 

Minnie nods. 

“You’re a pilot.” Soyeon says. Minnie tilts her head left then right. 

“You could say that. I won’t lie, I am growing weary of this place.” 

“How did you…” Soyeon starts, then Miyeon steps forward cutting off her question. 

“Do you know who I am?” Miyeon asks. 

Minnie pauses, looking her over. Her face turns cold. 

“You’re with YG. You should not be here.” 

“Not anymore. I…” 

“She punched him in the face.” Soyeon interrupts. Minnie holds back a laugh. 

“… I left there and need a way out of here before he finds me.” 

“Interesting, that’s brave of you. YG is not one to back down from an investment with such promise.” Minnie turns to Soyeon. “Still not sure why that would be my problem though.” 

“And you? Are you on the run as well?” 

“No way. My name is Soyeon, and I’m the captain of this crew.” 

“So you have a ship?” 

“Well… uh… yes, and no, but mostly no.” Soyeon laughs nervously, “but we’re going to get one.” 

Minnie looks at Sancho. 

“Is she for real?” 

Sancho nods. 

“She’s crazy, but she’s not a liar.” 

“Hey!” Soyeon says, “Look miss Yantarak…” 

“Yontararak” 

“Yes well…” Soyeon looks around the room, stalling for time as she searchs for a reason for her to help them. “I gather you are an important person. Only 2 reasons a person lives in the Heaps. They can’t afford to live anywhere else, or they don’t want the law coming around. And you don’t seem lacking for funds.” 

Shuhua was finally able to stand up for the first time. She is leaning on Soojin’s shoulder when Soyeon, Yuqi, Miyeon, and Minnie walk into the medical building each with their own form of disguise. 

“Shuhua, you’re okay!” Says Yuqi, a sigh of relief escapes her. 

Shuhua gives a weak smile and looks at Soojin. 

“Thanks to her, and you.” Shuhua says, “I’m guessing we are the only ones who made it…” 

Yuqi bites her lip and nods. 

“and the ship?” Yuqi shakes her head. 

“So… we’re stuck here.” 

“Not exactly.” Soyeon says stepping forward, “I found us a ship.” 

Soyeon placed a picture down in front of everyone. They all looked down to see a ship from the yard. 

“Freshly fixed and ready to be stolen. The SK Neverland.” 


	2. We're going to need some help

The six girls stare down at the picture of the ship. Their faces a mix of disgust and confusion.

“That does not look fixed.” Yuqi says.

“That ship is a mess.” Shuhua nods in agreement.

“Fine. Maybe it’s not perfect,” Soyeon admits snatching the picture away from them, folding it to put in her pocket. “But I think we can fix it and get out of here.”

“We just met… and I didn’t agree to go anywhere with you.” Minnie says waving her finger left and right. “I have a life here.”

“Yeah... I have a business, Soy. I can’t just leave because you didn’t get into another crew.” Soojin says starting to fix Shuhua’s bed. “Plus, Shuhua should not be traveling in her condition. She needs time to heal and rest.”

“You guys don’t have to leave because of me… I’m sorry to cause trouble.” Miyeon says, her voice cracking. She gives a small bow, “I have to go, I didn’t mean to get you all involved.”

Miyeon turns and walks out of the building. Soyeon looks at the remaining 4 girls.

“Wow. Our first fight as a crew.” She nods unable to hide her excitement.

“We are not a crew” Yuqi says as she moves to help Shuhua sit back on her bed. “Shuhua and I are a team. And I do think we should leave here, but if she can’t travel then I’m not going anywhere.”

Soyeon nods thinking for a moment, “You guys stay here.” She says, then runs outside looking for Miyeon.

“Wha…” Minnie says, “She can’t just tell us what to do…”

\-------------------------

It didn’t take long for Soyeon to find Miyeon, she barely made it around the corner before sitting on the ground with her knees against her chest and her head down. She must have heard Soyeon coming.

“I didn’t punch him in the face…” Miyeon says without looking at Soyeon.

Soyeon walks over and sits next to her on the ground.

“He said I wasn’t good enough for his crew… even after all my training…”

“Forget YG. You’d only end up in his basement like all his other crews.” Soyeon takes a deep breath. “Look… I… I’ve tried to join a lot of crews alright. And they never want me. They always say I’m not fast enough, not strong enough… I’m so sick of hearing that I’m not good enough. Something has to change.”

Soyeon looks at Miyeon, who lifts her head an inch and turns to look at Soyeon.

“My whole crew broke up.” Says Soojin, surprising the two girls looking up at her. “All we ever did was fight each other. I left just before the whole team fell apart.”

“My crew is dead.” Yuqi says, joining them, “Our ship crashed here and I… I don’t know what to do without them.”

Soyeon stands up, noticing Minnie watching from entrance of the Medical building.

“So, let’s make our own crew. The 6 of us.” She looks down at Miyeon, their eyes meet. “No one to tell us we’re not good enough.” Soyeon looks at Soojin, “No divisions.” She looks at Yuqi, “We will have each other’s backs. We can be the best, only thing stopping us is ourselves. We do everything as a team.”

“… I’m in,” Yuqi is the first. “but Shuhua has to come too.”

Soyeon nods, “Okay. We won’t leave without her.”

“I have a lot here…” Soojin says looking back at the med bay she built herself, then back at Soyeon. “But if I let you go on your own, you’re going to get yourself hurt. So, I’m in too.”

Soyeon smiles, “That’s what I’m talking about.” Then she looks at Minnie. “Look Minnie. I know we don’t really know each other, but I can tell that part of you is sick of this place, and you might have connections that could help us a lot.” Minnie tilts her head admitting that Soyeon wasn’t wrong.

“I have people here who depend on me, I can’t just leave them.”

“That’s… okay. I can respect that.” Soyeon says.

“So, I’ll need some time before we leave.” Minnie smirks, “I need a change, and people are going to be mad I’m leaving, but something is telling me to go with you.” She shrugs. Soyeon’s jaw almost hit the floor, before she starts nodding quicky.

Soyeon looks at Miyeon.

“You need to leave anyway. Come with us.” Miyeon looks up at her, on the edge of tears as Soyeon put her hand out. Miyeon nods and takes her hand, standing up.

“I will, and I promise I won’t be a burden.” Miyeon said. Soyeon smiles and looks around at the girls.

“Okay then. We steal the ship…” Soyeon says.

“But we need to wait for Shuhua.” Soojin says just a moment before Yuqi can say it.

“Right…” Soyeon nods, “So first we can…” She looks at the girls seemly looking for one of them to know.

“We need to see if the ship even functions.” Minnie says, to Soyeon’s relief.

“Yes! Exactly!”

“Why did you pick this ship?” Yuqi asks. Soyeon stares at her like she didn’t have an answer.

“…It looks fast.”

Soojin is the first to laugh, followed soon by Minnie. Yuqi just looked embarrassed while Miyeon becomes even more worried than she was before.

“I know someone who can help us.” Minnie says, “but we might not have a lot of time. Ships come and go from the yard all day long, who knows how long that ship will be there.”

Soyeon shakes her head, “It’s been there for years, and according to you lot, it’s in no condition to fly. It’s not going anywhere.”

“Okay then.” Minnie looks at Soojin, “Maybe you should stay here, look after the girl…”

“Shuhua.” Yuqi said.

“Right, the less people we run around with right now the better.” Minnie says.

Soojin nods in agreement. Miyeon looks to Soyeon.

“What should I do?”

“Staying here might be too dangerous.” Soyeon says, “We’ll get you a mask and some new clothes, then you can come with us to meet Minnie’s friend or whatever.”

Miyeon nods, she would have smiled, but she was still watching her back, checking every corner for one of YG’s minions, or the man himself.

“Now, do any of you have creds?” Minnie asks.

“I gave most of mine to Sancho for taking me to you.” Soyeon says.

Yuqi shakes her head, and Soojin sighs.

“I put all my creds into the med bay…” Soojin says, “Wait, you had a fancy place, even if it was in the Heaps. Don’t you have creds?”

“I have some… but I’m definitely not funding fixing up some old ship that been sitting in a dump for who knows how long by myself.” Minnie says.

“I’ll pay for it… How much is it?” Soyeon says.

“You just said you gave all your money to Sancho.”

“It is a leader’s job to solve problems. Just tell me how much it will cost, and I’ll get the money.” Soyeon nods.

“Fine. One problem at a time I suppose.” Minnie says.

“Great. You said you know someone who can help us. Let’s go see them.”

“Tomorrow. It’s getting late and I’m guessing at least 2 of you don’t have a place to sleep.”

Yuqi and Miyeon nod.

“We can all stay at my place, then go in the morning.” Minnie says.

\-------------------------

Soyeon, Yuqi, Miyeon, and Minnie make their way across the heap as the sun rose behind them. It’s an unnatural maze unlike anything Yuqi had ever seen, and although Soyeon had lived there for most of her life, she would be lost if not for Minnie.

“Who are we going to meet?” Yuqi asks, following Minnie down a path of discarded metal down into a clearing.

“A friend of mine from my home planet. She came here before I did, and she’s one of the few people I trust here in the Heaps. She’s not going to be happy I’m leaving.”

“How did you end up here?”

“My ship was sabotaged, like all the others.” Minnie says.

“You said before that the ships that crashed here were by design. What do you mean?” Yuqi asks, “My ship had…”

“Stabilization failure.” Minnie finishes her sentence, “Yep, that’s what they want you to think. It’s not that complex. Just think about it. Why would so many ships crash on this tiny little planet that’s already covered in crashed ships and trash? And they always have the same problem.”

Yuqi and Soyeon thought about it. Soyeon had heard rumors that the government caused ships to crash here, but as far as Soyeon could tell, there was no government on Cube to speak of. There were no laws, and the only leaders were the head of gangs in the Heaps.

“But who would do that? And why?” Yuqi asks.

Minnie shrugs, “Never figured that much out, but there’s no way it’s not someone’s doing. It’s always ships that didn’t have problems before. It’s always the stabilization systems. Of course, lots of people land here for refueling, but the crashes… all their stories are the same.”

Soyeon nods. She had never really questioned why so many ships crashed here, it was just the normal way of things.

“We should do something about it.” Yuqi says.

“…Why?” Minnie replies.

“It’s not right all these people are trapped here for… some unknown reason, by some unknown person…”

“Well we are going to leave, so after that it won’t really be our problem.”

“It’s just wrong. You must have lost people when you crashed here. Don’t you want answers?” Yuqi shakes her head, then she remembers the night before when she was looking for someone in charge, someone who would help her, and found no one. “Doesn’t… I mean, arn’t there police here? Someone we can talk to about this.”

Minnie almost laughs but didn’t want to come off as cruel.

“No Yuqi. There is no one like that here. People here fend for themselves; they fight just to feed themselves. You know what happens to ships that crash here?” Soyeon says.

“…yes.” Yuqi says, thinking back to her crash. “The collision alarms were going off, I was with Shuhua in the lower engine. I didn’t know how to help, and Shuhua was underneath some machine screaming orders at me… I did try to help but I’m sure… I’m sure I just slowed her down.”

The four girls pause for a moment to listen to Yuqi.

“The next thing I remember is heat. The whole room was on heating up, we must have been entering the atmosphere. Shuhua was still yelling, but I couldn’t understand her. Then the whole ship started to shake, there must have been a hull breach somewhere…

“When I woke up, I could see Shuhua stuck under the machine she was trying to fix before. She wasn’t moving. My head was spinning, I don’t remember feeling anything like pain, just dizziness. Somehow, I lifted the machine off her and carried her through the ship to an escape hatch. I saw all my crew… dead. Some crushed by equipment, others burned in the fires.

“If someone did that to us… if some government or gang leader killed my crew like that…”

Minnie places her hand on Yuqi’s shoulder. Yuqi now notices the tears rolling down her face.

“I understand.” Minnie says.

Soyeon also came to comfort Yuqi.

“We are a team now. We will find out who is responsible.”

\-------------------------

Shuhua groans as she opens her eyes again. The woman in the fox mask stands over her.

“You’re awake.” Says Soojin. “That’s good. How are you feeling?”

Shuhua makes some sounds that may or may not be words.

“Take it slow, the next few days will be the hardest.” Soojin picked up a cup and leaned over Shuhua to help her drink. “Here, you’ll feel better.”

Shuhua took a sip as the cool water rehydrated her throat.

“We don’t have much for painkillers around here, but I gave you what I could.” Soojin set the cup on a table by the bed. “I hope it doesn’t hurt too much.”

“…Thank you” Shuhua says, her eyes darting around the room. “Yugi?”

“She uh… well I guess we are all trying to get off this planet.” Soojin smiled, “I guess she sort of volunteered you to join the crew as well.”

Shuhua sits up, groaning again “Crew?” Soojin placed her hand on her chest to stop her.

“Don’t push yourself. Eat something first, then I’ll help you stand up for a bit.”

\-------------------------

The four girls come to a clearing in the Heaps, all the wreckage seems to have been pushed into mountains to make a clearing for a series of what must have been 30 or so tents. Soyeon maps them out in her mind, as she would any battlefield. Minnie pulls a chunk of metal out of a stack and lays it on the floor, sitting on it. Then rides it down the mountain of trash like a sled. The other girls shrug and follow doing the same, each finding their own bit of metal and sliding down. Yuqi can’t help but laugh, Miyeon was screaming as Soyeon is determined to be the first one down the mountain.

Any joy she might have been feeling is ripped away once at the bottom of the hill. Soyeon notices they were spotted by more than three guards at different points around the tents, they raise their weapons at the girls. Minnie stands and puts her hand up towards one of them. Then speaks in a language Soyeon doesn’t understand.

That must be the language of her home world.

Soyeon looked at Yuqi.

“You know what she’s saying?” Yuqi shakes her head, then Soyeon looks at Miyeon, who is still catching her breath from the sliding. “You?”

“Sounds like Thai, but I don’t speak it.” Miyeon says.

The guards lowered their weapons, then speak in the same language that Minnie used. Soyeon, Yuqi, and Miyeon gather behind Minnie.

“It’s fine. They won’t attack us.” Minnie says.

A woman who looks slightly older than Minnie comes out of one of the center tents and smiles when she sees Minnie.

“Minnie! It’s so good to see you again.” Sorn says in their native tongue. “I trust nothing is wrong…”

Sorn looks at the girls almost hiding behind Minnie.

“It looks like you were followed,” Sorn says, her voice sterner. “You know outsiders aren’t welcome here.”

Yuqi and Miyeon watch as the two women seem to be arguing, while Soyeon is watching everyone else around them. All the guards that noticed them coming down the hill, all the people that had come out of their tents to see what was going on. She made sure to note each person and watch out for trouble.

“This my new crew.” Minnie says, “Part of it anyway, they can be trusted.”

I think…

Sorn looks them over, then nods in approval.

“Let’s talk then,” Sorn said, switching to Korean so they could all understand.

She led the girls between the tents, many occupants poking their heads out to see what was going on. Soyeon keeping her eye out for any that might be armed, but none seemed to be. She moves forward to whisper to Minnie.

“Who are these people?” Soyeon asks.

“Peaceful people who help keep this planet from descending any further into lawlessness.”

Sorn walks into a large tent, different from the one she had come out of, it is where the people of this tent city came to eat together. The tables are half full of people just going about their day. Sorn sits at one of the long tables and waves for the girls to join her.

Soyeon is the last to sit as she still fears this could be a trap.

“This is a long way to come for friendly hellos.” Sorn says, waving over someone from the far side of the tent.

“We need your help.” Minnie says.

“I gathered.” The man Sorn waved to leaves the tent.

Where is he going? He could bring reinforcements. We are sitting ducks here, and unarmed.

“I am planning to leave this planet. You should prepare for it.” Minnie says. Sorn froze in shock.

“You’re… leaving?”

Minnie nods as the man reentered the tent followed by a group of men, holding plates of food. The men walk over and set food out in front of each woman. It was Thai food, which Soyeon had never seen before. Yuqi’s eyes went wide as she realized she hadn’t eaten in two days, she was so overwhelmed by her surroundings that she had forgotten.

“You can’t just leave. You have responsibilities, land to protect, people to watch over.”

“I’ve done a lot for these people. They can take care of themselves, plus… I have stashed away a lot of creds. I’ll give it to you… for them.”

“So, you expect me to do your job?” Sorn switches back to Thai in her anger. Yuqi gives into her hunger, not caring about the risk.

“It’s not a job Sorn. I don’t work for you or anyone else. Once we get this ship fixed, I’m going.” Minnie says then starts to eat the food in front of her.

Sorn is quiet for a minute. Miyeon watches Minnie and Yuqi eating, unsure if she should also eat. Soyeon has barely looked at her food, still not trusting those around them.

“I thought it was only right that I tell you in person.” Minnie says.

Sorn laughs and shakes her head.

“That’s not why you’re here.” Sorn says, “You already admitted, you don’t have a ship.”

“That’s right…” Minnie says pushing her empty plate away, “I need Hui, he can…”

“No”, Sorn says. “He is not going anywhere with you.”

“I just want him to look at the ship and tell us what’s wrong with it.”

“No.”

“You are not his keeper.”

Sorn takes a deep breath.

“Do what you want, but don’t expect support from us if you leave.” Sorn stands up and walks down the hall out of the tent.

“So…” Miyeon says quietly, “Is this safe to eat?”

Yuqi had cleared her plate.

“I don’t know, but it sure was tasty.” Yuqi says.

“Of course, it’s safe.” Minnie says, “What did you think would happen?”

Soyeon picked up her chopsticks and start to pick vegetables out of the food.

“Ew.”

“Who is Hui?” Yuqi asks as Miyeon starts to eat.

“He’s an engineer. He’s been around longer than I have, he will be able to tell us what’s wrong with the ship before we steal it. It might not even be worth stealing.”

“Of course it is!” Soyeon almost yelled with food in her mouth. “It’s our ship. We will fix it no matter the cost.”

“Says the girl with no creds.” Minnie says with a smirk.

“How is he going to look at the ship? It’s not exactly ours.” Miyeon asks.

“He knows people in the shipyard. It won’t be a problem.”

\-------------------------

The four girls make their way back to Sancho’s bar. As they approach the building, Soyeon spots one of YG’s men standing outside. She puts her arm out to stop the girls from moving forward, then moves to the side of a nearby building and waving at them to follow her. Hiding on the side of the building, the four girls watch and wait.

“They are not looking for me. I’ll go in and see what’s going on. Alone.” Soyeon says. Miyeon grabs her arm.

“What… what if they know I’m with you.”

Soyeon shakes her head, “It’ll be fine. Just wait here, I’ll go and be back in no time.”

She moves through the alleyway and makes her way to the other side of the building, starting down the road towards Sancho’s bar. If they note where she came from, it wouldn’t led back to the girls. She walks up to the entrance of the bar like she would any other day, but as she got close, YG’s man put his hand out to stop her.

“Bar’s closed”, he says. Soyeon figures she can get past him without much trouble, but she had no idea what could be going on inside.

“Why’s it closed?” She asks, trying to act natural. The man stares at her before finally replying.

“Get lost kid.”

“Kid...” Soyeon holds back her anger, then smiles and turns to walk away. She makes her way around the back of the bar and sneaks in through the kitchen door by pilling some thrown out boxes on top of each other. She can hear people talking as she lowers herself from the window seal to a counter top.

“I know she was here. Tell me where she is right now!” It is YG’s voice.

How could he know she was here?

“I didn’t see any girl.” Sancho said.

Soyeon looks for something to help her see. She picked up a pan that was clean and reflective, but much too distorted to help.

“Fine. You wanna do this the hard way, that’s on you.” YG said.

There was a sharp beeping sound coming from the bar.

“Are you insane?!” Sancho yelled.

Soyeon couldn’t wait anymore, she bursts into the bar and sees YG standing in the middle of the room holding a false gravitation implosion device.

“Tell me where she is.”

Sancho was quiet… Soyeon watched him, wondering if he would give them up.

“I told you… I don’t know.”

With those words, YG shrugs and drops the FGID on the floor next to him, then runs out of the bar as fast as he can, his men following. Sancho runs towards Soyeon. She turns and unlocks the back door so they could both escape moments before the device goes off creating a gravitational sphere that covered the whole building, then collapsed into itself in a violent implosion, leaving nothing behind.

“My bar…” Sancho and Soyeon sit in what was the alleyway behind the bar, now just an empty street.

“Holy crap… he almost killed us.” Soyeon says as Yuqi and Minnie ran over to them.

“What the hell happened?” Minnie asks, “We just saw YG and his crew run out of here like wild chickens or something.”

Yuqi looks down at the hole in the ground that used to be Sancho’s bar.

“This guy is not messing around.”

Sancho stands up looking at the hole.

“That piece of… Miyeon!” He looks at Soyeon then at Minnie. “Where is she?”

“She’s fine.” Minnie says, helping Soyeon stand. “She’s just hiding”

Sancho breathes a sigh of relief. “Good, can’t lose her and my bar.” He shakes his head.

“That dude is crazy. You all have to get Miyeon out of here.” Sancho says.

“We are working on it.” Soyeon says, “Sorry… about your bar.”

“They are still watching us...” Sancho says.

Soyeon nods, “We should split up. Minnie how long will it take for Hui to check out the ship?”

“A few hours I guess, I don’t really know.”

“Okay, you help him with that. Yuqi, you go check on Shuhua and Soojin, tell them what happened here and see how long till Soojin feels like Shuhua will be able to leave. I’ll take Miyeon and go get us some creds.”

\-------------------------

“Where are we going to get creds from?” Miyeon asks following Soyeon from alleyway to alleyway to avoid being seen.

“I’ve got a… business associate…” Soyeon says, peeking her head into the street before running to the next building.

“That doesn’t exactly sound like a sure thing.”

“You have any better ideas?”

“I’m not even sure what this idea is.”

“Just… trust me, okay?”

Miyeon nods, “okay. Let’s do it then.”

Soyeon smiles then points at a tall building.

“She lives on the top floor. I uh…” Soyeon shakes clear her head, “stay close, and let me know if you see anyone watching us.”

Soyeon and Miyeon move closer to the building, there is no cover between them and it, they are forced to run. No one seems to notice as then enter the outer elevator.

“How do you know this… person?” Miyeon asks. She had finally changed her clothes into something a local would wear and gotten a mask from Soojin’s collection.

“We fought a few times…” Soyeon says pushing the button for the top floor.

“Fought? What do you mean?”

Soyeon looked at Miyeon realizing they didn’t know each other at all.

“Jeon Soyeon”, she put her hand out. Miyeon laughed as she had the same realization.

“Cho Miyeon.” She shook her hand.

Soyeon presses the elevator button and the doors close in front of them.

“Long story short, I fight in one-on-one matches to make money. It’s kinda safe and makes me enough to get by.” Soyeon says, “But, to make a lot of money, we are going to need a lot of competitors. The real money is in the bet taking, not the betting. The house sets odds so no matter who wins, they make profit.”

Miyeon nods half understanding.

“You want to set up a big fight.”

“Yes, one big event should get enough people betting that we could pay to have the ship fixed.” The elevator bell rings, and the doors slide open to reveal the open balcony of the top floor. Soyeon steps out and heads left.

“If this is so easy why didn’t you do it before? You said you were making just enough to survive.”

“Mnet crew oversees all fighting events on Cube. If one happens without them, they are going to be pissed.” Soyeon says, stopping in front of a large door. “Doesn’t matter if we piss them off right before we leave right?”

\-------------------------

Yuqi walks into the med bay, seeing Shuhua sitting up in her bed.

“Shuhua.” Yuqi says, causing Shuhua to look at her. Yuqi walks over and sits on the bed next to her. “How are you feeling?”

“This is nothing.” Shuhua smiles, “I’ll be up in no time.”

Soojin comes from helping another patient.

“You’re back.” She says, setting down some dressing on a table.

“Soyeon wants to know how long before we can leave…” Yuqi says, almost ashamed that she is asking.

“Everyone heals at different speeds. Rushing to leave could make things worse.” Soojin says expecting the question. She slowly lifts Shuhua’s arm and starts to peel off one of the cloth strips.

Yuqi looks away.

“What would happen if we left now?” Shuhua asks causing Soojin to pause and take a deep breath before continuing.

“Your wounds aren’t life threatening at the moment, but we know what kind of ship Soyeon has her eyes on. Without continued treatment any number of your wounds could get infected which can lead to death. So, I guess the worst that could happen is, you die.”

Soojin finished removing the old wrapping and began cleaning the stitches on Shuhua’s side.

“But… you’ll be there right?” Shuhua asks, looking at Soojin. “So if something happened, you could help me… again.”

“There’s only so much I can do here. I doubt that ship will have any kind of medical supplies.” Soojin finishes the cleaning and places the new bandage. “I can take a few things from here, but this place needs to survive after I leave. This is one of the few places none of the gangs will attack and I won’t leave them empty-handed.”

Yuqi nods confirming what she had already thought about.

“I’ll tell Soyeon we can leave soon if we have proper medical supplies.”

Soojin gives her a suspicious look.

“I suppose that would be best…”

\-------------------------

Minnie had gone back home to the Heaps. She stands in the office which Soyeon and the rest had met her, placing a stack of files on her desk, and digging under the drawer to pull out a small safe. She unlocks it quickly and pulls out a stack of cred chips. One of her guards walks over and she hands the chips to him.

“Give it to Sorn, she will take care of you and the rest. This won’t be a smooth transition, but I trust you.”

“…Will you be back?”

“I have no idea.”

Hui walks into the room, looking around, but not at anything one thing, as if lost in thought.

“They told me you wanted me to fix a ship.” He says, the guard bowing to Minnie before he leaves with the chips.

“Well, I at least need to know what’s wrong with it. Fixing it might be too much to ask.” She says tossing the files from the desk into a nearby metal shipping crate, then striking a match and tossing it in over the files. Smoke starts to raise as the papers burn.

“Where is it?” Hui asks.

“The shipyards. Some old piece of… ship called SK Neverland.”

Hui nods and smiles, “I’ll check it out today… Does this mean you’re leaving?”

“Sorn will take care of everything.”

“She can’t do everything you can.”

“… Let me know what’s wrong with the ship, if it even can be fixed.”

Hui laughs, then smiles, “No problem.”

\-------------------------

Soyeon knocks on the door. Miyeon keeping an eye out for anyone that could be watching them as Nada opens the door.

“Soyeon… What are you doing here?” Nada says leaning out of the door and looking around spotting Miyeon. “You in trouble or something?”

Soyeon laughs, then goes quiet, “…Yeah kinda.”

Nada laughs then nods her head gesturing for them to come in. Soyeon and Miyeon walk inside and Nada closes the door behind them. The apartment is much bigger than Miyeon expected. The woman who opened the door seems to be friendly, but Miyeon keeps an eye out just in case.

“What’s going on?” Nada asks, sitting down in a chair and waving for them to join her.

“Well, first of all, I’m leaving the planet.” Soyeon says as she walks over to the couch across from Nada and sits down. Miyeon stays standing, worried that someone could burst in at any second. Nada watches Miyeon curiously.

“Second, I need lots of creds and fast.”

“You’re leaving?” Nada confirms, still watching Miyeon. “How?”

“A ship.”

“No shit. I didn’t think you were going to teleport.”

“I need the creds to finish a ship in the yard so I can leave.”

“Why all of a sudden?”

“It’s personal.” Soyeon says. Nada thinks it over for a minute, finally moving her eyes to Soyeon.

“With you gone there will be less competition for me.”

“You’re welcome then, but I do need your help.”

“For the lots of creds and fast?”

“I’m setting up an event. A big one, as many competitors as I can get.” Soyeon explains.

“A non-Mnet event.” Nada says, “They’ll have your head.”

“I’ll be gone. They won’t have a chance to take my head.” Soyeon smirked, “They won’t come after you guys. Just me, and I’ll be long gone.”

“And why would I help you swindle them?”

“We going to take in lots of bets, lots of creds up for grab. Before I hop on my ship and take off, I’ll give each fighter half of every bet on them.”

Nada nods, “I see. But what about the people who win the bets? How you going to pay them?”

Soyeon’s smile grew larger, then she flattens her hand in front of her and made a plane taking off gesture. “Long gone.”

Nada laughs and stands up.

“I’ll call the others.”


	3. Loose Ends

“It’s unrepairable.” Minnie says, sitting in her office which she had begun to clear out. “We can find a different ship to steal, maybe one that doesn’t need to be fixed at all.”

Soyeon shakes her head.

“It has to be Neverland. Why can’t it be fixed?”

“It’s too much work.” Minnie groans, “it would take months to fully fix, just getting it off the ground would take more money than its worth.”

Soyeon looks at Yuqi, “Didn’t you say Shuhua is an engineer?”

Yuqi nods, “but she’s in no condition to be working on a broken-down old ship.”

Soyeon, somewhat offended by what Yuqi said, says “I know she’s hurt, but once we do leave and she gets better, she could fix the ship… more.”

“Maybe… but that doesn’t really help us right now. Can Hui fix it?” Yuqi asks standing off to the side of the room. She had still not become accustom to the way most building on this planet were made from trash and crashed bits of ship.

“I’m sure he could, but I won’t ask him. It’s too much work.”

“Maybe we should find a different ship, if we are going to steal one anyway, shouldn’t we pick the best one.” Miyeon says.

“Neverland is the best one. We just have to fix it ourselves.” Soyeon says.

“Do you know the first thing about fixing a ship?”

“… Making sure it’s broken?” Soyeon says, “Fine, maybe I don’t, but I can learn. We can all learn. I mean…” Soyeon takes a deep breath, wondering if she was making the right decision. “Think about it, once we are out there, we won’t always have someone to fix things for us. We must learn to fix it on our own. We can’t depend on someone to come save us if something breaks down.”

Miyeon smiles and nods. Yuqi laughs softly and looks at Minnie.

“If we can at least get off this planet, we could find a place to do proper repairs.” Yuqi says.

“UGH!” Minnie yells in frustration running her hands through her hair, “We haven’t even left and I’m losing my mind…” She takes a deep breath, “Fine I will ask Hui to fix it. But! Just enough so that we can take off and land on another nearby planet.”

“Thank you.” Soyeon says.

“It’s going to cost though. Plus, we’ll need even more funds once we land. How much will we make on this Unpretty thing?”

“Honestly… I have no idea.” Soyeon says, “People bet all kinds of crazy amounts normally, but this is not a normal event, people might be too nervous to bet, or they might go crazy and bet their life savings.”

“I’ll have some of my people spread word about the event. There’s a few who still owe me favors.” Minnie says.

“Either way, we need to be ready to leave… before the final match.”

“Why before?”

“We don’t plan on giving them their winnings.”

\-------------------------

“Soojin said that if we want to leave the same day as the event, we’ll need medical supplies to take care of Shuhua.” Minnie says.

“We can get some stuff from my parents. My fathered used to sell artificial skin cells for closing wounds. I always go to him after tough fights.” Soyeon says as the two made their way to the border between the Heaps and the forest of endocytes.

“You people are crazy to live here.” Minnie says staring deep into the forest.

“There are safe spots, but you still have to watch yourself.” Soyeon says, “Stay close to me.”

Soyeon stepped past the border and over the vines which now created the ground. Minnie followed closely, only stepping in the exact spots Soyeon had already stepped.

“You’ve never come into the forest before?” Soyeon asks, Minnie shakes her head.

“This is way worse than the Heaps.”

Soyeon laughs and nods, “Only if you don’t know what you’re doing.” Soyeon put her hand out to signal Minnie to stop. Then waved for her to duck as she also lowered her head. Minnie lowered her body.

“What’s happening?” Minnie whispers.

“There’s an acid cloud.” Soyeon says at her normal volume, then pointed over towards a small lake that Minnie hasn’t noticed before, floating over it was a sort of green mist. “It doesn’t look like its moving. We should be fine.”

Soyeon slowly stood back up, then continued deeper into the forest. Minnie couldn’t help but stare as a bird flew directly into the mist, only to have its bones fall into the lake in one swoop.

Minnie panics when she finally notices how far ahead Soyeon is.

“Wait… hey…” She began to move towards her, scared because she had not seen where Soyeon had stepped.

“It’s fine. Come on.” Soyeon pauses waiting for Minnie to catch up. “We don’t have a lot of time.”

Once Minnie finally caught up with Soyeon, waiting at the edge of a cliff, below them was deep green forest as far as Minnie could see. Soyeon points out into the trees.

“There’s my house.” Soyeon says, Minnie looks to where she was pointing but only see trees covered in vines and some that looked like they have spikes.

“How do we get down there?” She asks. Soyeon reached down to her belt and pulled a hook that attached to her belt over to hook onto Minnie’s clothes.

“Hold on” Soyeon says. Minnie’s eyes darted down at the hook in her clothes and then back at Soyeon who had now grabbed hold of a long vine and stepped off the cliff. The belt between them pulled Minnie down with Soyeon. As they slide down the vine, Minnie screams as louder than she ever had before. Soyeon laughs as the vine slows them down towards the bottom, and Soyeon can jump a few feet down to the dirt. Minnie was forced to follow, Soyeon sure to grab her so she doesn’t hit the ground.

“What the…” Minnie says trying to catch her breath. “…At least… give me a… warning first.”

Soyeon laughs as Minnie bends her back and swings her arms around.

“Are we there at least?” Minnie asks, her eyes finding even more forest as she looked around, “How do you find your way around this place?”

“The same way you find your way around the Heaps.” Soyeon shrugs, “It’s not far now.”

\-------------------------

“I feel so much better.” Shuhua says as she leans on Soojin to help her walk. “I can feel my strength coming back.”

“That’s great.” Soojin says, “You’ll be back to normal in no time.”

Shuhua goes quiet. The walking took all her focus and energy. Not only had the crash hurt her muscles and nerves, but it also threw off her balance. She was just now, 4 days later, able to stand up on her own. One side of her feared what kind of damage she took and wondered if this make-shift med bay was equipped to know the real damage. The other side was ever grateful to this stranger who had taken her in without any kind of payment or expectation.

“You’re like an angel or something.” Shuhua says.

Soojin laughs and nods.

“Yep that’s me. The angel of the trash planet.”

Soojin helps Shuhua back into a chair. Shuhua groans in pain.

“Ahh… Damn it.” Shuhua says leaning back.

“I’ll get you some food okay?” Soojin says, “You can’t have painkillers without food.”

After a few minutes, Soojin returns with some food on a tray. She sets it down in front of Shuhua and turns to leave.

“How did you end up here?” Shuhua asks, causing Soojin to pause and look back at her. “I mean, did you crash like everyone else or…”

“They say no one is on Cube on purpose.” Soojin says leaning into the hallway to make sure no one needs her. Then she pulls a stool over next to Shuhua and sits down. “My parents crashed here, with Soyeons. Thankfully, no one died in that crash. If you’re lucky, when you crash you can sell some of your ship parts and survive for a while before figuring out that you’re stuck here.”

“Couldn’t they just get help?”

“No one here is going to help. A few people have asked the cargo ships to take them off planet, but they know you are stuck and will charge more creds than you should carry with you. And if you do have the creds, they’ll take it and eject you out the airlock.”

Shuhua’s eyes go wide.

Soojin laughs and smiles, “I’m just kidding. It’s not that brutal, but most people are poor and lose everything in the crashes. Besides, it’s not so bad here.”

“Why do you want to leave then?” Shuhua asks, finally starting to eat.

Soojin thought for a minute before answering.

“I’ve been here my whole life… I don’t think I want to spend it all in one place, and if Soyeon is leaving, someone needs to look after her.”

\-------------------------

“I’ve spent most of my time stuck here, looking for some kind of authority figures.” Yuqi says, as her and Miyeon walk through a market, faces covered with hoods over their heads.

“According to everyone I’ve talked to, the gangs seem to keep their own kind of order.” Miyeon says. Yuqi nods.

“Yes, but there must be a government of some kind, even if they have no real power.”

“What’s a government with no power…” Miyeon asks.

“…” Yuqi had no answer. “If what Minnie said is true, someone is taking down ships on the planet, we have to find out who.”

“I uh… I’m sorry about your crew…” Miyeon says. Yuqi didn’t reply, she feared that if she thought about it, she would break down, and there was no time for that now.

“Not now.” She says to herself and Miyeon.

They walk through the maze that is the market. Miyeon didn’t really know what they were looking for, maybe someone official, but she figured that they would never find someone like that. There were several gangs, just standing around the market, groups of 3 to 5 people, they made their presence known, and that seemed to be enough to keep everyone calm. It was a fragile peace.

It seemed like hours they walked around the market. Most of the shops were scrap from the Heaps. Yuqi even recognized a few items from her old ship, but she made a point to look away. Yuqi’s frustration grew unbearable, she walked straight up to one of the groups of gang members. Miyeon stayed back trying to make sure she wasn’t seen, even with the mask, you couldn’t be too careful.

“Who do you work for?” Yuqi asks. The group of men looking at her, then each other. One of the men laughs and looks her over.

“You’re new here, aren’t ya?” he says, the other men smirk and hold back laughs.

“How do you know?” Yuqi says.

“First of all, you have an accent. Which may not mean much, lots of folks around here ain’t from here, but your accent is from China galaxy” The man stepped away from Yuqi and towards Miyeon. “Neither of you knows how this place works.”

Miyeon didn’t know what she had done to stand out, she was sure she was acting completely normal while covered head to toe.

“It’s no problem. We are used to newcomers, but you should be careful the kinds of questions you ask.” He turned back to Yuqi, “You might get the attention of people you don’t want the attention of.”

The man nods his head towards the direction Yuqi and Miyeon had come from. Standing at a shop, seemingly yelling at some shop owner, was YG. The man nods again, this time towards the men with him, two of which started walking towards the shop YG was in.

“It’s our job to keep the peace… for as long as peace keeps us paid.”

\-------------------------

Soyeon and Minnie finally made it to the small house within the forest. It was one of the few houses Minnie had seen on Cube that wasn’t made from broken ship parts. It was made of the same kind of vines and trees that seemed to be attacking their legs with each step they took in this forest.

Soyeon walked up to the house and touched one of the walls, it seemed to recognize her as the vines parted creating an entrance for them.

“I’m home.” Soyeon says into the house taking her shoes off and leaving them by the door. Minnie did the same and followed close behind her, keeping an eye on the vines as they might attack at any moment.

“Welcome home.” Minnie hears a voice from inside.

The inside was lit by strategically created opening between the vines that created the roof, letting just the right amount of light into the house. Hyekyung was standing in the kitchen helping Sohee prepare dinner.

“Hey Sis.” Sohee says with a smile, “Who’s your friend?”

“This is my crewmate Minnie.” Soyeon says. “Minnie, this is my mom and sister.”

“Crewmate? Are you in a crew now?” Sohee asks.

“Nice to meet you Minnie.” Hyekyung says, then looks at Soyeon. “I’m surprised you’re home. I thought you had class tonight.”

Soyeon nodded, “Yes… but actually I wanted to talk to you about that…” She looked around the room a bit. “Where’s dad?”

“He should be back soon.” Hyekyung says, waving Soyeon to come over. “Since you’re here you can set the table.”

Soyeon nodded and walked over to her mom leaving Minnie standing alone in a house she wasn’t sure what do make of. She started to walk around the living room, scared of being too far from the kitchen only to have the house eat her somehow. While the walls and ceiling were made of the vines of the forest, the ground was a soft packed dirt that felt almost warm under her feet. Most of the furniture was made of benches and beds from fallen ships, but there were also a few wood pieces that looked newly made.

“My dad made those, but you have to be careful about using wood in the forest. It could eat us alive if it wanted to.” Soyeon laughs. Minnie shakes her head.

“Don’t joke like that.” Minnie reaches out and touches the smooth wood of their dinner table as Soyeon began setting it. Minnie looked over at Soyeon’s mom and sister in the kitchen. She lowers her voice so they wouldn’t hear her. “You sure you’re ready to leave them behind?”  
Soyeon nodded without hesitation.

“I’ve been ready for a long time. Besides, it’s not like I can’t come see them. I won’t be gone forever.”

“You hope.”

Soyeon’s mom and sister came from the kitchen and began setting down plates of food along the center of the table. As Minnie was watching them, wondering if she should be helping, the vines of the wall parted, and an older man stepped in. Minnie assumed he was Soyeon’s father. He was tall, she expected him to be short because of Soyeon’s height.

“Hello.” He says, looking from Minnie to the others.

“Hey Dad, this is Minnie.” Soyeon says.

“…Nice to meet you.” Minnie finally says.

The man smiled and nodded, “Minnie, nice to meet you. I am Byeonghwa. Did you two meet at school?” He looked at Soyeon. A confused look grew on Minnie’s face, she didn’t think Soyeon was in school.

“Mom and Sohee made dinner.” Soyeon says, avoiding the question.

The five of them sat at the table, Soyeon and Minnie across from Soyeon’s mom and sister, with her father at the head. Minnie looked around at each of them, she couldn’t remember the last time she had a meal with her own family, or even seen them.

“Soyeon said she had something to tell us.” Hyekyung says.

“Oh, alright. Here we are.” Her father says looking over at Minnie and Soyeon.

“Oh, yeah… well the thing is…”

Her father nodded, “I see. So, this Minnie is not just a friend?”

Soyeon’s face went red and she stood up pushing her chair back.

“No!” She yells, “I mean, that’s not…”

Minnie and Sohee laughed. Soyeon took a deep breath.

“I’m not in school actually… Minnie is one of my crew.” Soyeon says, “there are 6 of us.”

“Crew?” Her mom asks, “What crew? What are you talking about?”

“I dropped out of school, and I have started a crew.” Soyeon says, so fast that her words take a minute to process. “… I have started my own crew and we are getting our ship tonight.”

“A… A ship?” Her mom asks, “What do you mean… How?”

“I need you to trust me. This is something I need to do. To prove myself… to myself.”

Sohee stands up and walks into the kitchen. She starts to pull down mixing bowls and a pan. Minnie watches her, at a loss for what she was doing. Soyeon smiles.

“I know its dangerous out there…”

“Deadly.” Her mother says, “People die without a second thought.”

“I know, but I’m going anyway. It might be a lonely and cruel universe, but I have to put myself to that test.”

“We will always support you. If this is what you must do, then do it. Better now that your young.” Her father nods.

Soyeon smiles and looks at her mother, who was fidgeting with her hands.

“What if… we never see you again?” Her mother’s hands started to shake.

Soyeon stood up and walked around the table, sitting in Sohee’s seat next to her mom.

“I’ll be back. I promise.” Soyeon says as her mom looked over at her. Tears forming in the corners of her eyes. “I just want to see you smile.”

Soyeon’s mom nods.

“I know you can do it.” She says, and smiles.

\-------------------------

Miyeon pulls Yuqi into a nearby alleyway.

“They are still looking for me.”

“Did you think they had given up?” Yuqi asks. The girls had not noticed the gang member they were talking to before had followed them into the alley.

“Who are they?” He asks. The girls looked at him surprised he was even there.

“That’s YG, he’s after me.” Miyeon says without thinking if she should tell this stranger.

“YG huh? I’ve heard of him, scary dude.”

Yuqi shakes her head, “We should get out of here.” She took Miyeon’s hand and is about to run.

“Wait. You asked me who I work for… Why?” Says the man. Yuqi paused.

“We are… trying to find out why ships keep crashing on this planet, and I was hoping someone high up on whatever chain of command you use might know something about it.”

For the first time since they met, the man goes quiet.

“… You’re right. You should run.” The man turned and left them in the alley. Miyeon and Yuqi looked at each other, then started moving down the alley to the other side of the market.

“He knows something.” Yuqi says. The market seemed to be quieting down, some of the shops started to close and people were finishing up their days. Miyeon and Yuqi found a way out of the market and headed back towards the Med bay.

“Why would a random gang member have secret information about a planet-wide plot to force ships to crash here?” Miyeon asks.

“I don’t know! I’m working with extraordinarily little information here.”

The girls entered the Med bay to find Soojin asleep at her desk. Her mouth open with a bit of drool coming out. They stare at her for a moment before sneaking past and going to Shuhua’s room. Shuhua is sitting in a chair to the side of her bed. She looked at them as they enter.

“Yuqi, You’re back. What’s going on?”

“That is… a tough question.” Yuqi says sitting down on Shuhua’s bed. “Can you think of anyway an organization could sabotage a flying ship’s stabilization systems planetside?”

“You’re asking me if someone could force a ship into freefall from ground…” Shuhua thought for a minute. “I don’t think so no. The shield generators would protect from most physical attacks, and even if something did get through, it would be extremely unlikely to only damage the stabilization systems.”

“Then how did our ship’s stabilization systems mess up?”

“Someone on the crew must have sabotaged it from the inside.”


	4. Unpretty Escape

Minnie stands amidst the ruins of a ship once called the SK Neverland. She struggled to call it more than a pile of scrap. There must have been a fire when it crashed, black scars run up the sides of the engine room, soot covering every machine she can see. There's hull damage, of course, on top of damage to the landing gear, the control boosters, the shield generator, and, as Minnie expected the stabilization system. The damage is beyond the point of being able to tell what was damaged before the crash, and because of it.

"We need to leave soon." She says to Hui who is standing off on the side of one of the main engines. He had pull open a panel and had disassembled part of it. Minnie tried to watch what he was doing but had no clue what any of the parts were for, or if they were working or damaged.

"You go anywhere in this thing... you won't survive the landing." Hui, his hands covered in oil, brought a fist sized metallic cube eye level. "Quick fixing the hull wouldn't be too hard, a few days of patch work maybe, but everything else is going to take weeks, if not months to fix properly."

"What if we fix it just enough to get it moving?" Minnie asks.

Hui thinks for a moment, then slides the cube back into a slot on the engine and stands up walking over to a control panel near the power delivery system. He pulls two levers down at the same time and the system buttons start to glow for a moment, before shutting back down.

"Power delivery is fine, but you'll need a new source." He returns the levers to their original state. "I can get this ship flying but the problem will be once you're off planet, you'll have no protection and no control. You'll become a boosted casket."

Minnie sighs deeply and starts the rub the back of her neck, a headache had been pulsing since she'd met her new crew.

"You can get it off the ground?" Minnie asks. Hui hesitates.

"...Yes, technically." Hui said unsure he should even admit it.

"Great. Get it to take off and I'll handle the rest." Minnie says then starts walking towards the door. She pauses and looks back at Hui. "Thanks Hui. Really."

\-------------------------

"Today's the day." Yuqi says, sitting on the edge of a vine that was protruding from the forest floor. "The big day..."

"Yep..." Soyeon says wearing a gas mask while sitting in her workshop not far from her house. She was leaning over her latest creation.

"What is that thing?" Yuqi's eyes wondered over the small bottles that lined the book sized creation. Soyeon sat up and pulled down her mask.

"It's for my fight. The bottles contain a toxin found in some of the vines here in the forest, just the right amount can cause damage to data processing in the brain that seems to slow time for the victim." Soyeon says, Yuqi jumps up off the vine she was sitting on then looks down at it. Soyeon laughs. "Not that vine."

"..." Yuqi stares at her, "You're going to cause someone brain damage... with toxin?!"

"That is what I'm doing. They will be fine after I win the match... I'm pretty sure. But I have to be careful, too much and..." she put her hands on either side of her head and made a melting and popping sound with her lips.

"I've been in my share of fights, but this is too much." Yuqi reaches down about to touch one of the bottles when Soyeon grabs her hand.

"Don't... I don't know how stable this is."

Yuqi's eyes go wide as she pulls her hand away.

"How did you learn how to make this?"

"I grew up in this forest, learned things the hard way... You have to get creative in these fights, and we'll have to be creative with our escape."

"We will have to come back at some point. I can't just leave without finding out what killed my last crew."

"I'll make sure we come back. This is my home after all."

Soyeon nods placing her mask back over her face and goes back to focus on her work.

\-------------------------

"I spread the word of the event. What's next?" Big Sancho asks Soojin, who is looking over a list of supplies.

"From what Minnie said, landing the ship is not going to be possible. We'll need to secure some emergency supplies... and I guess normal supplies."

"What do you mean 'landing is not possible?'"

Soojin shrugs then set the list down on her desk and sighed.

"Although Shuhua is much better than when she got here, it's still risky."

Sancho looks over at Shuhua who was stretching while sitting in her bed. Miyeon helping her and making sure she didn't hurt herself. Sancho leans towards Soojin and whispers.

"She seems okay to me, but if she's really doing that bad you could leave her here. It's not like anyone is looking for her. She might be safer staying, I could keep an eye on her."

Soojin quickly shakes her head.

"We are not going anywhere without her..." She thinks back to what Soyeon said before, "We are a team now. We will get through this together."

Sancho nods, "That's admirable."

He sits down in one of the patient seats nearby and takes a deep breath.

"I don't know what I'm going to do once you all leave. YG... that son of a bitch destroyed my bar. It took years for me to build that place."

"...How did you end up here?" Soojin asks, not wanting to assume that Sancho had ended up here the same way everyone else does. "I mean... What keeps you here?"

He looks up at her.

"I grew up here. I did try to leave once, but I wasn't much for crew work. I enjoy just listening to people... maybe a few words of wisdom if I have any." He smiles painfully then looks back down, "I'll have to start over."

"You must have some creds saved up. Maybe you can build an even nicer place." Soojin says.

"I do have some... and I have the creds Soyeon gave me." He stands up and nods. "I think I'll try to do something even better."

Soojin looks at him, unsure what he means.

"Thanks." He says before turning and leaving her med bay.

Shuhua groaned as she stood up, Miyeon holding onto her arm.

"I'm okay. I got it." She says, nodding to Miyeon who hesitated to let her go.

Shuhua found her balance, Soojin was watching her from across the hall. She started towards the room, then stopped herself.

Shuhua stretched her arms out in front of her, then pulled one arm over the other.

"My strength is coming back." She smiles, Miyeon nods.

"That's great... You do know we are leaving tonight right?"

"Yeah, of course. I'm ready." Shuhua says, then Miyeon laughs.

"That's makes one of us."

\-------------------------

Soyeon and Yuqi stand in center of the makeshift arena they had put together that would be the battleground that night. It wasn't as complex as the Unpretty Fights Soyeon was used to, but the open field would have to do, as they barely had time to put in some seating for their soon-to-be victims of theft.

"You sure you can win?" Yuqi asks just as she noticed Nada walking towards them.

"Doesn't matter if I win, we get the money and we are gone..." Soyeon says as she waves Nada over to them. "...but yes, I will win."

"This is it huh?" Nada asks looking around at the open sky arena. "This is... something..." she laughs. "You got a game plan?"

Soyeon pulls out her small poison bottle device.

"This guy will..."

"Yuqi." Minnie says as she comes running towards them.

Yuqi looks from Soyeon to Minnie.

"Something wrong?" she asks.

Minnie shakes her head.

"No..." then hesitates. "Well, yes. But that's not why I'm here.

Minnie looks at Soyeon and Nada.

"Do you guys need Yuqi?"

They look at each other and shrug.

"I guess not." Soyeon says. Minnie nods.

"Great." Then grabs Yuqi's hand and start to pull her away, "Let's go."

"Ahhh!" Yuqi yelled being pulled away, "Where are we going?"

She finally starts to go with Minnie who seemed to be in a hurry.

"You can fight right?" Minnie asks.

"I mean, yeah I guess... wait I don't like where this is going." Yuqi pulls back to stop Minnie for a second. "Will you chill for one second?"

Minnie stops and looks back at her.

"We need a lot of supplies, like right now." Minnie says, Yuqi nods. "Hui says we need a new power source and, of course we'll need Pans Fuel."

"So how do we get those things with no creds?"

"Same way you get anything with no creds. You steal it."

\-------------------------

Soojin opens the door to a hidden tunnel not far from the Med Bay, she bends down and slides her body in, pulling closed the door behind her. She follows the tunnels for a bit before it opens up and she can stand up straight again. She had built her home by herself, just like she built the Med Bay, after she lost her last crew.

She had made a home here, even though she was alone most of the time. She had helped her crew as much as she could, but this time felt different. Soyeon was one of the few she really thought of as a friend.

Soojin kneels at her bed and reaches underneath to pull out an old metal box with a finger scanner on the front. She lifts the case and places it on top of her bed, then places her thumb and the case cracks open. She pulls open the lid to look over medicines she kept for herself. She stood up and started to pack. She couldn't fit much in the case, but it would have to be enough.

\-------------------------

Miyeon enters the arena, a mask covering her face. She notices Soyeon and Nada talking off to the side, walking over to them.

"Is everything set up?" Miyeon asks. The two turn to face her.

"Yeah, I think so. I'll need you to take the bets on the side, just take their money, write them a ticket and..." Soyeon lowered her voice and looked around to make sure no one else heard her. "Make sure to leave half for the fighters, as we agreed, then you should slide out while no one is looking, head straight for the shipyard. I'll meet you and the others there once the fight is over."

Miyeon nods. The idea of selling money from so many made her uneasy, she had never stolen anything before. She tried to justify it by telling herself that they were gambling it and therefore must be able to lose it all, but so far it wasn't making her feel better.

"I didn't know what to put for odds, but since no one will be getting their winnings I guess it doesn't matter. Make up some odds okay?" Soyeon says before turning back to Nada. "They will be so confused they don't stand a chance."

\-------------------------

"What does it look like?" Yuqi asks.

"It's like a... little cube..." Minnie says making the shape of the power source they needed with her hands. "Uhh... I'll know it when I see it."

They hide in the rubble that makes up the mountain just outside the shipyard. They stare down at one of the ships that seems to have landed not long ago. 4 men stand outside of it, 3 travelers and 1 yard worker. They couldn't hear the men, but they must have been talking about fixing up the ship, there was no other reason people made stops on this planet.

Once they were done talking the 3 men from the ship left the yard, crossing the gate. Once they did the worker stood outside the ship and stretched out his arms in front of him.

"That's the sign." Minnie says as she starts down the mountain towards the yard.

"Sign?" Yuqi asks, her eyes go wide as Minnie takes off. "Hey wait!"

Minnie slides down, Yuqi staring at her, then sighing as she sits down and slowly follows her. They make their way to the wall the surrounds the shipyard, Minnie starts to move some of the rubble stacked against it, revealing a crack just large enough to squeeze through.

"Whoa..." Yuqi says placing one hand on the boarder of the opening as she investigates it. "Is it safe?"

"Is anything we're doing?" Minnie said, sliding one leg into the crack and pulling the rest of her body through. "Just try not cut yourself on anything. That could get nasty."

Yuqi takes a deep breath before following Minnie, "I'm not afraid of anything." She seemed to tell herself.

Minnie pushes through, the wall itself is thin, but on the other side of the crack is more debris hiding the crack on the side of the shipyard. Minnie pushes against the debris, but it is too heavy to move. Once Yuqi is next to her, she points upward.

"Give me a boost." Minnie says.

"What?"

Minnie rolls her eyes, "Come on, I'll jump up and crawl out through the top, then remove the stuff on the other side so you can get through."

Yuqi nods and places her hands together at her waist creating a step for Minnie to boost herself up and over the debris. She pulls herself up and disappears from Yuqi's sight for a moment before she hears Minnie start to move discarded ship parts.

The girls make their way through the shipyard and end up at the ship where the man was waiting for them.

"You've got 30 minutes before the worked come to start fixing this thing. Get in and out fast. I won't cover for you if you get caught." Says the man to Minnie without even looking at Yuqi. Then he heads away from the ship, leaving the landing ramp open for them.

"Friend of yours?" Yuqi asks.

"He owed me a favorite. Here's the plan..." Minnie says as she starts up the ramp.

"You couldn't tell me the plan before we got on the ship we plan to grift?"

"I wouldn't call it grifting... It's just straight stealing."

"..."

"Anyway, we need medical supplies, tools for repairing the ship, the power source... and whatever else we can carry." Once they reach the top of the ramp, Minnie pulls a leaver on the side of the door and closes the ramp behind them.

"At least if they come back early, we will have a warning." Minnie says, "Alright. I will focus on the power source. You see what else you can find."

Yuqi nods and looks around. The ramp led to a series of 8 sleeping bunks. This must be a personnel transport ship. There was basically no room for storage, which meant it was only used for short trips. Lucky for them it wouldn't take long to search the whole ship. The first thing Yuqi notices is a communication system that would fit tightly into each crew members ear. There was 9 of them. She started to pick them up before realizing she should have brought a backpack. Her eyes darted around the room to quickly find something that would hold all the things she stole. There was small pillowcases that would have to do the trick. Yuqi picks one up and pulls the insert out, then throws the in-ears into the case.

She searches the bathroom only to find a few basic medical supplies.

"Maybe we should have found a larger ship to steal from." Yuqi says, both to ease her worries and to find out if Minnie is close enough to hear her.

"Next time you can pick the ship." Minnie replies, making Yuqi just a bit less scared.

Yuqi starts opening small compartments anywhere she can find them. Most of them contain personal items from the crew, till she presses a button while feeling inside of one of the containers. She hears a clicking sound from the hallway near the bunkbeds. Yuqi starts to walk towards the sound when Minnie pops out her head from the engine power delivery area.

"Find something?" Minnie asks.

Yuqi looks down at her and sees a small metal cube in her hands.

"Is that..."

Minnie nods, "took a few bangs, but I got it out. Also found some tools we can use."

Minnie holds the toolbox in her other hand.

"It's kind of old but..." she shrugs.

"I uh..." Yuqi holds the pillowcase up, "Found some in-ears we can use. Of course, we'll have to configure them to our ships communication system, but it shouldn't be hard. Basic meds... Not much else."

"We've got about 10 minutes left. Let's be out in 5."

Yuqi nods in agreement, then remembers the sound she heard. She moves down the hallway and finds a small popped-out shelf. She pulls it open to reveal 2 blasters. Weapons. She hadn't thought about weapons. The stress of losing her crew, being stuck on a strange planet with no laws, Shuhua being hurt. It all makes her feel overwhelmed, but she doesn't have time to reflect right now. Yuqi pulls the blasters out and shoves them into the pillowcase just as the ramp door starts to come down.

\-------------------------

Soojin had taken a hover shipment pallet as payment a long time ago. She had often used it to move patients from where their ship crashed back to her Med bay. This time she had placed some of her and Soyeon's things in the bottom and Shuhua lay on top of it.

"I can walk you know." Shuhua says, somewhat annoyed.

"They will ask less questions if you are asleep on the pallet. They have seen me carry patients on it before, and we need to get you on the ship before everyone else." Soojin says.

Shuhua sighs and pulls the blanket over her face.

"You're a patient, not a corpse." Soojin says pulling the blanket back to reveal Shuhua's pouting face, "The real problem is I don't know where the ship is in the yard... we might get stuck wondering around, then they might start to ask questions..."

"Well, we know what the ship looks like. Hopefully, it won't be that hard to find."

Soojin paused and looked back at the Med bay, she might never be back, but she didn't want to think about what she had done. She wanted to think about what she was going to do. Right now, her only goal was to get Shuhua on the ship safely.

She pushed the pallet to the entrance of the shipyard without trouble, then notices that there are no guards at the gate.

"That's strange." Soojin says.

Shuhua looks towards the yard.

"You said there would be guards... Maybe they all went to Soyeon's show."

"I guess it's possible... We better hurry."

Soojin spotted the problem as soon as they passed into the yard. The group of men normally at the gate were surrounding a recent arrival.

\-------------------------

People were starting to fill the arena. Soyeon could not even see Miyeon behind the crowd of people placing bets. A big crowd meant lots of angry people once they realized what had happened.

"We'll have to be long gone by then." Soyeon says to herself.

"You ready for this?" Nada asks.

Soyeon nods.

"Let's get the show going."

Soyeon made sure she wasn't the main attraction; people might point fingers at the headliner. She invited many of the fighters she had worked with before. This also helped bring more fans into the event.

The fights began and Soyeon grew more nervous with each minute. She knew what bring on a crew would mean, she knew the kinds of things she would have to do, even trained for them, but once she left this planet, it wouldn't be training anymore. Lives would be on the line. Her crews lives, and her own. No more holding back.

Soyeon goes to check on Miyeon, who had finally finished taking in everyone's bets as the first match came to an end. The arena fills with cheers.

"Everything okay?" Soyeon asks, looking at the odds that Miyeon had written out. "What the?!"

"I uh... I don't know how odds work... I tried to tell you..." Miyeon says.

"This says if you bet a cred on me you win 700..."

"That's good right? Aren't you good at these fights?"

Soyeon laughs and shrugs.

"I guess it doesn't matter." Soyeon kneels down and whispers to Miyeon, "This is important Miyeon. Once my match starts, make your way to the shipyard. I will meet you there."

"I know."

"And leave half for the fighters."

"I know."

"How much did you take in?"

"I don't know."

"We can do this."

Miyeon nods, hiding her shaking hands on the table in front of them.

\-------------------------

Yuqi pushed Minnie into the side room as the main ramp door lowered. Minnie's eyes went wide, but she knew not to make a sound. Hearing the men stepping onto the ramp, Minnie gathered what was happening and pulled Yuqi deeper into the ship.

There wasn't a lot of places for them to go on such a small ship.

"Come on out now. We know your in here." Says a voice.

Minnie knew that cockpit was on the same side as they were and that it had an escape hatch, but it would be extremally loud. The men would know where they were, instantly.

"What do we do?" Yuqi says with her eyes, not actually making sound.

Minnie moves to the cockpit and quickly finds the escape hatch.

"... I'll distract them. You go back through the ship and escape once they are gone. Go straight to our ship and stay there."

Before Yuqi can protest, Minnie pulls the lever. With a loud bang the hatch flies off and hits the ground. Minnie climbs down and drops herself, landing hard on the ground.

"Ahh... damn..." Minnie says.

"She's out here! She used the escape hatch!" say one of the men. They all start to come off the ship and run towards her. Minnie takes off, leaving Yuqi hiding in the cockpit.

\-------------------------

The crowd went wild as Nada and Grace took shots at each from across the arena. Grace was reckless, she was always one to take risks, even if they didn't often pay off. Nada was more tactical, but going up against someone like Grace, she would have to match that energy.

While Nada and Grace fought from across the arena, Soyeon and Ach-B's fight had become hand-to-hand. Exchanging blows as they moved between the blasts from Nada and Grace. Ach-B was keeping Soyeon on guard for so long, she had almost forgot her plan. Her eyes shift away from Ach-B and see that Miyeon is gone.

Soyeon smiles as she takes a hit she was expecting. She uses the momentum to push herself back from Ach-B, then she pulls a small breathing mask from her belt, wraps it over her mouth and pushes back toward Ach-B. Ach-B puts her arms up in defense, but Soyeon pulls a cord from the device she made earlier.

The hallucinations start the moment the toxin enters Ach-B's brain. Where there was one Soyeon before, there are none. Multiple copies of Soyeon appear in her minds eye, all taunting her. She hits one of them, and she disappears as quickly as she appeared. Ach-B is left fighting an army of Soyeon ghosts.

The toxin is spreading around the arena, so thick that Grace and the crowd can't see what happened. They also are not able to see as Soyeon runs past Nada. A knowing nod between them before Soyeon escapes out of the arena.

\-------------------------

Soyeon makes it to the gate of the shipyard, she sees no guards at the entrance. She slows down, taking careful footsteps as she turns the corns of the yard. She spots it, the ship she has long wanted as her own.

On the edge of the doorway into the ship stands Soojin, seemingly on lookout. She spots Soyeon and waves for her to hurry. Confused, but not able to ask questions, Soyeon starts to run. The SK Neverland engines come to life with a loud roar and dust shooting out of its old parts. Soyeon is shocked, she talked so much about leaving, joining a crew, and setting off into space with them.

Her moment is interrupted when she finally sees why Soojin was telling her to run. Minnie was running towards the ship from the opposite direction, with a gang of guards chasing her.

"Get in here!" Soojin yells at both Soyeon and Minnie.

The ship started to leave the ground; fine control was not something it had anymore. Soyeon was able to get on the ship just in time, grabbing onto Soojin's arm as the ship lifted.

"I don't know what I'm doing people!" Yuqi yells from the cockpit, "We really need our pilot!"

Soyeon looks down at Minnie who was still a way away.

"We won't leave without her." Soyeon says.

She looks around the airlock.

"There must be something we can use to pull her up."

"Here." Soojin says handing Soyeon her makeshift jetpack she often used to soften her landings in Unpretty battles.

"You're a genius." Soyeon says, then flings the jetpack out of the door and straight to Minnie.

Minnie screams as the pack hits the dirt just in front of her. She stops running and looked down at it.

"Put it on!" Soyeon yells, but Minnie is unable to hear over the engines.

Even without hearing her, Minnie puts the pack on and starts running again.

Just as she comes below the ship Minnie pulled the cord on the pack causing its signature twin explosions. This wasn't a jetpack; it was a bomb you strapped to your back. The force removed Minnie from the ground and brought her close enough for Soyeon to grab hold of her.

"I got you." Soyeon smiled and pulled Minnie inside. Soojin pulled the door shut behind them.

Inside the ship were all manner of alarms...


End file.
